Can anyone recommend a good knob controller for C7 that could be used with the Plug ins and VSTis?
I’m looking at the Behringer BCR2000 (click here) - is it recommended? And how hard is it to map controls to it?
Avoid the Behringer thingie like the plague (and avoid Behringer in general… 
Yeah, most of it is crap. ) Programming that unit is like taking a trip to hell. And the manuals are just as cryptic as if they were written in Sanskrit.
My advice, look for one of the Novation products. The Nocturn is very inexpensive and might be all you need:
http://us.novationmusic.com/midi-controllers/nocturn
Or you might consider the Zero SL MkII, if you also need fader and channel control:
http://us.novationmusic.com/midi-controllers/zero-sl-mkii
Or just go for Steinberg’s own CMC modules. I have all of them and I love them!
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/controllers/cmc_series.html
+1 for Novation
I love my 25SLMkII.
Hi,
get a Novation Zero SL Mk2. Best value for the Price.
Cheers, Ernst
PS.: I had a BCR2000 and I can NOT agree to the postet critics. There are excellent Editors available in the Internet (dont use the one that Comes with the unit or from the behringer web site - there are far better things available for free!) The Controller is very robust, versatile and works excellently!
+1 novation ive had an sl mk2 for 3 years now and not had a single glitch with it ,automap works a dream .
OOH wait here come the arguers
The best thing in my opinion is steinberg stuf as they include AI knob, which means that you just hover with your mouse on the parameter/slider whatever and turn the AI knob, it is that simple.
Menoj
I once owned a BCR2000. Nothing wrong with it, still probably the best bang for buck, reliable and seemed to be well built. But in the end… I found I much prefered to work with a mouse and keybaord so I sold it. 
Nothing wrong with Behringer today, but like anything, you get what you pay for, and if you want it cheap, then you’ll suffer in quality. Behringer does however generally give you the best bang (quality) for your money in the lower to mid end market. It may interest you to know that certain products and subassemblies for other name-brand products are in fact manufactured in Behringer’s chinese facilities - so maybe that “piece” of gear you highly recommend, that is “much better than Behringer”, is in fact a Behringer product with another name on it. Think about that. It would seem the days of the Behringer-banging parrots are at an end.
My experience with Behringer has been hit and miss. Some products last very long, but others I have had problems with. I have heard nothing but good stories about the BCR/BCF though, so if the featureset appeals there’s nothing better at that pricepoint on the market I believe.
The problem with the Behringer BCF/BCR is that their software is obsolete and archaic, and good luck trying to program one to do what you want… They don’t give you any numerical feedback because they were designed to interact with software that displayed all numerical values on the computer screen. Unfortunately, said software only works with XP and old OSX versions. So, you’re like a blind man when you use one of those on a modern machine…
“Said software” (DLd from Behringer.com) works perfectly on Windows 7 64 bit in conjunction with Cubase 7.0x/7.5.
Apparently not for everyone:
“Well it sounds like BCFView is great but I never could get the display to work on Win7/64.”
Incidentally, also my own experience, which is why I sold my BCF’s and replaced them with CMC-FD’s.
I can’t vouch for Sonar - I use Cubase and it works perfectly provided one selects the proper midi port in BCFView.
Regardless - I currently use CMC-FDs, the BCF is still connected however. (the errors due to the Steinberg redef of the Mackie model sometime between 7.0 and 7.5 (e.g. bank/channel shifting) is quite real however).
That had nothing to do with Sonar, BCFview simply didn’t work on any of my W7x64 systems and basically I was flying blind. Which is a common experience, regardless of DAW used (and yeah, I was also using Cubase with my BCF’s and BCFview didn’t work either.)
Sorry for my confusion 
Point is for me it works fine on W7-64 and for you not, so there’s something else causing a problem.
Regardless, let’s stop derailing this thread.
To Chony, have a good look at the CMC controllers and see what you think.
It’s really not that simple. There are plenty of people here complaining about issues that some other people don’t experience. That doesn’t mean these issues aren’t real. Imagine if the people at Steinberg always replied with your line: “hey, it works for me, so clearly it’s your fault!”
Behringer’s software is really far from being top-notch and the BCF isn’t a simple unit to program, because its software is beyond ridiculous. Not to mention it’s noisy as hell. You get what you pay for.